Fun with Brecht and Weill

It’s been a long time since Sacramento’s been treated to some middle-of-the-last-century musical politics, but this season, we’ll get a double scoop. That’s thanks to Ray Tatar and company at the California Stage and the creative minds at City Theatre. Up first is The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper), the Bertolt Brecht-Kurt Weill collaboration that gave us the inimitable “Mack the Knife.” The California Stage production of The Threepenny Opera, under the direction of Angelina Reaux, opens on February 5 and runs through the end of the month. Next, opening April 23, is the City Theatre’s production of Berlin to Broadway: A Kurt Weill Cabaret. This show will offer a range of Weill’s works, from his more Germanic, light opera music to his later American works. Think you don’t know Weill? Think again: Songs recorded by artists like the Doors (“Alabama Song”) and Bette Midler (“Surabaya Johnny”) were written by him.